Prairies, psychedelics and place: The dynamics of region in psychiatric research Erika Dyck Department of History, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada S7N 5A5 article info Article history: Received 20 January 2009 Accepted 2 February 2009 Keywords: History of psychiatry Saskatchewan LSD Socialised medicine abstract In 1957, the word ‘psychedelic’ entered the English lexicon from a rather unexpected location: an asylum superintendent working on the Canadian prairies in one of the provincial mental hospitals in Saskatchewan. During the 1950s Saskatchewan-based researchers engaged in political and psychiatric reforms that brought international attention to their work in a relatively isolated geographic location. This article considers the influence of location on the development of a medical theory that challenged prevailing ideas about the causation and treatment of mental illness and addiction. Drawing on perspectives from historians, political scientists, sociologists and geographers, this case study explores the historical meanings of region and place and combines older historiographical traditions, which define region in political terms, with concepts borrowed from other disciplines, which offer a more nuanced view of cultural geography, to examine the development of psychedelic research in the post- World War II period. & 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction In 1957, the small prairie city of Weyburn, Saskatchewan boasted that it had attracted international attention for being home to cutting-edge psychiatric theories and treatments. The local newspaper proudly reported that its own mental hospital superintendent, Humphry Osmond, was ‘‘fast gaining in national prominence in psychiatric work,’’ under the headline that claimed ‘‘world hears progress of mental health treatment carried out at Weyburn.’’ (Weyburn Review, 1957). Although Osmond had been born and trained in England, he moved to Saskatchewan in 1951 and soon put Weyburn on the international map for his daring experimentation in psychiatry. Most notably his studies with the hallucinogenic drug, LSD, led him to coin the term psychedelic; a word that would later be wrested away from psychiatric medicine, much to Osmond’s chagrin. While his self-experimentation with this drug encouraged him to reconsider spatial conceptualizations within the asylum, his capacity to conduct internationally significant research from a relatively isolated and rural location also draws historical attention to the geo-political influences on medical experimentation. This article explores how elements of local pride, provincial political commitments and psychedelic drugs together produced a scientific approach to the treatment of mental illness with a distinctly regional character. The specific historical geography of Canada, which has lent particular economic, political and cultural inflections to the constructs of region, place and territory, has entered into a complex relation- ship with the conceptual frameworks of academics seeking to make sense of the substantive processes in all manner of fields, the medical-psychiatric included. In the 1950s medical researchers in this Canadian prairie province experimented with psychedelic drugs in an effort to institutionalize a new therapeutic paradigm for conceptualizing and treating disorders such as schizophrenia and alcoholism. While they were not alone in their desire to use ‘‘mind- manifesting’’ chemicals to stimulate research in psychiatry at this time, their efforts gained them international notoriety and their programs became a source of local pride. The reception and support of their studies at home shielded them from professional marginalisation and allowed their work to develop differently from that of their contemporaries who often faced stern opposition from colleagues, states and communities (Mills, 2007). The relative success of the Saskatchewan researchers, in terms of sustaining their research efforts, allowed them to contribute to mainstream debates in psychiatry well into the 1960s. Consequently, they did not feel that their work was radical, and did not adopt a position outside of psychiatry in an attempt to publicise their views. Their experiences and the history of LSD experimentation in Saskatchewan draw particular atten- tion to the importance of the location of medical investigations and emphasises how non-medical, indeed environmental and cultural, factors influenced the development of psychedelic psychiatry. ARTICLE IN PRESS Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/healthplace Health & Place 1353-8292/$ - see front matter & 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2009.02.005 E-mail address: erika.dyck@usask.ca Health & Place 15 (2009) 657–663